The Unearthed Arcana also demonstrates more substantial changes being made to D&D’s playable races. Beyond making a cameo appearance in 2018’s Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, the setting – which is a spacefaring spin on typical fantasy tropes – hasn’t received a dedicated sourcebook of its own. While remaining a popular setting since it first appeared in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons back in 1989, Spelljammer has never appeared fully in Dungeons and Dragons 5E. Upcoming D&D books may well focus on the Spelljammer campaign setting, or explore multiple planes within the D&D multiverse by building on the races presented here. Given that Unearthed Arcana playtest material is published by Wizards of the Coast to test new D&D mechanics before they are integrated into future releases, this Travellers of the Multiverse document suggests the content of future D&D releases. The Hadozee, meanwhile, can spread their skin membrane to glide through the air.

Thri-Keen can telepathically communicate with other creatures instead of clacking their mandibles together, and use their carapace for a natural AC rating of 13 + your Dexterity modifier. The playtest material also adds some more wacky additions. While each has specific racial traits, some standout abilities are the Palsmoid’s Shape Self feature, which lets them morph into a limbless blob or humanoid shape with arms and legs as they please the Autognome’s True Life ability, letting them regain hit points if a Mending spell is cast on them and the Giff’s Hippo Build trait, granting them Advantage on Strength-based ability checks and saving throws. Giffs are humanoid hippos, Autognomes are mechanical beings built by Rock Gnomes in their likeness, Plasmoids are amorphous amoebas, Hadozees are ape-like beings, Thri-Kreen are four-armed insectoids, while Astral Elfs are the familiar pointy-eared folk who live on the Astral Plane. Those last four have appeared several times in past Seplljammer novels and adventure modules, but all are pretty wacky in comparison to the standard D&D races. The document’s six new playable races include the Astral Elf, Thri-kreen, Autognome, Giff, Hadozee, and Plasmoid. Released last Saturday on the D&D Studio blog, Travelers of the Multiverse includes in-progress rules for the new races, and provides an example of how future D&D material will implement the racial changes revealed last week. The latest Unearthed Arcana playtest document for Dungeons and Dragons introduces six new playable races to the tabletop RPG, several of which are taken from the game’s popular space-fantasy Spelljammer campaign setting.

D&d races 5e playable